▪ I. weazen, a.
(ˈwiːz(ə)n)
Also 8 weezen, 9 weasen.
Altered form of wizen a.
| 1765 Foote Commissary i. 10 His little weezen face as sharp as a razor. 1793 C. Smith Old Manor House I. iii. (ed. 2) 53 However she may set her weazen face against it..she likes at the bottom of her heart a young fellow of spirit. 1820 W. Irving Sketch Bk., Inn Kitchen I. 317 A little swarthy Frenchman, with a dry weazen face. 1839 Dickens Nich. Nick. lxii, A little, weazen, hump-backed man. 1877 W. S. Gilbert Foggerty's Fairy (1892) 76 A weazen little body, with over ladylike manners. |
| fig. 1901 Blackw. Mag. Oct. 577 Their policy was not weazen and anæmic. |
b. Comb.: weazen-face, -faced adjs.
| 1794 Godwin Caleb Williams 37 He is but a poor, weazen⁓face chicken of a gentleman. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav., Bold Dragoon (1848) 30 A pale, weazen-faced fellow. 1841 Thackeray Gt. Hoggarty Diam. ii, A little weazen-faced old lady. 1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz. xi, A little blear-eyed, weazen-faced, ancient man came creeping out. |
▪ II. weazen, v.
(ˈwiːz(ə)n)
Also 9 weezen.
[Altered form of wizen v.]
intr. To shrink, shrivel. Also trans. (? nonce-use) to cause to shrink.
| 1821 Lonsdale Mag. II. 409, I put those three shillings..into a hole, and I found them weezened every time I went to look at them... I have just found it out that Dick has weezend them. 1850 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XI. ii. 605 Nothing retards their [sc. pigs'] feeding so much as allowing them to be pining and weazening for their anticipated regular meal. |